KQ2 development
Article concerning the development of King's Quest II: Romancing The Throne. From back of box; :In answer to the popularity and critical acclaim of King's Quest, Roberta Williams has created King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne. Romancing the Throne carries on where King's Quest left off - both in pioneering technology and in enjoyable gameplay. King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne takes the technologies initiated in the original King's Quest and refines them into form. "It's like playing an animated cartoon," claims Compute! magazine. The animation and music in the game are unparalleled in the realm of computer adventure. By mixing the best elements of text adventures and arcade quality graphics, King's Quest II establishes a whole new standard in computer gaming by which future games will be judged. Development Limited floppy space would have restricted my design, but we had been compressing our pictures by drawing them as lines and fill colors for a while. That scheme was kept all the way up to King's Quest V. This sequel to the original King's Quest provided not just a second look at the life of King (formerly Sir) Graham of Daventry, it also began a tradition of using King's Quest as a training ground for future designers. Future Space Quest series designers Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe joined the development team. This game does not support sound cards or mice, as they did not exist at the time of publication.King's Quest Collection (1997) manual, page 4. Later versions did offer mouse control. Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe helped to make the game an even bigger hit than the original.KQ8 Manual, pg 3 King's Quest II resembles King's Quest I in appearance and interface. King's Quest II contains fourteen musical selections, including Tchaikovsky's love theme from Romeo and Juliet.-The Royal Scribe According to Roberta Williams :King's Quest II reminded me a little of Wizard and the Princess. We saw how previous games (Mystery House and King's Quest I) were received by the public, and I was anxious to try my hand at a bigger story right away. Graham would be king by now. What quest should a lonely king go on? What should he see through the magic mirror? A maiden in distress! I started to foresee a family for Graham in the future. I couldn't fit some ideas into King's Quest I, so I was happy to get a chance to include King Neptune, Dracula, everyone from Little Red Riding Hood, and that infamous rickety old bridge you could only cross so many times.King's Quest Collection (1997) manual, pg 11 :My earlier games, from Mystery House to King's Quest II, were great games, but they couldn't have the deep complex plots I wanted due to memory and space limitations. Basically they were treasure hunts with lots of simple goals (you go from here to there) and fun puzzles to add to the challenge. King's quest III had to push things a little farther.King's Quest Collection (1997) manual, pg 14 :The story always comes first, but technology plays a big part in what you can't do.King's Quest Collection (1997) manual, pg 21 Improvements This was the first King's Quest to include an introduction cutscene, just past the credits. It also is the first game in the series with a linear story progression. The world actually changes as the story progressesKing's Quest II hintbook, pg 7, 15, new characters appear in the world, areas are opened up to the player, and closed off when no longer needed. For example the mermaid appears after reading the inscription on the first door, the Antique Shop opens after reading the second inscription, the Boatman appears after the third door inscription is read. Unused Material http://tcrf.net/King%27s_Quest_II file:threeteethkey.png|An alternate graphic for the keys, the used key has two teeth. File:batkey.png|A batkey obtained from Dracula's Castle to open the last door. In the final version all three keys appear the same. File:unusedgenie.gif|Unused genie animation KQ2designdoc2.jpg KQ2designdoc3.jpg SCI Remake There were plans to remake quite a few of the AGI Sierra games into newer SCI interfaces. However, the 1990 project to revamp the original King's Quest was widely viewed as a critical failure because many reviewers and gamers took offense at what they perceived as an attempt to "destroy the classics." In fact, the project was compared to the controversial practice of "colorizing" classic black-and-white movies. Valid or not, these reactions essentially stopped work on future attempts to modernize later King's Quest installments.King's Quest Collection II manual, pg 4. System Requirements IBM PC Junior/Tandy+ MS-DOS Supports EGA, CGA, MCGA, VGA, and Hercules monochrome graphics cards 256K required. Mac requirements: 512k required, Macintosh, Macintosh II, Double-sided drive required, color or B/W monitor Credits Story by Annette Childs. References Category:Game development